akvsamWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ak is a noun, am is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ak” is a noun and “am” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,974
“ak” frequency rank
#2,705
“am” frequency rank
18679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ak am
Definition irmão (que não é o primogênito) o / a usado com substantivos masculinos no caso nominativo singular quando a palavra começar com as letra b, f, m, p

Letter map: ak vs am

Shared letters muted; letters that set ak and am apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ak
2 ch
am

Role in the sentence - ak and am

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ak is anoun and amanarticle. On the page they differ by a single letter - k in “ak” becomes m in “am”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ak is recorded at frequency rank #15,974, classified as anoun, pronounced /ák̚/. am is at rank #2,705, tagged as anarticle.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 18679, this pair ranks #52,248 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ak vs am

Shared letters: a. Private to "ak": k. Private to "am": m.

"ak" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "am" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ak" for "am" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ak" is a noun and "am" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ak" vs "am" - which ranks higher?
"am" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,705 in our Portuguese list, against #15,974 for "ak". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "ak" and "am". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ak" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "am" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,248 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ak" and "am" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ak". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #52,248 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list